No Santa here, Giga community has Wangkarmal

Warnun is a small township in the Kimberley region of WA, 3000kms north east of Perth, Nothing spectacular – except it doesn’t celebrate Santa.

It celebrates this time of year with Wangkarmal – a mysterious feathered friend who appears at this time of year with gifts for the children.

The Gija people are the traditional owners of the area, having inhabited it for thousands of years and the Gija word for crow is Wangkarmal. Warmun, ironically for a Christmas story, was once known as Turkey Creek.

And Wangkarmal is Gija mythology, the Christmas Crow, visiting kids once a year after a school concert that is designed to summons the black bird to town.

The story about an eagle and a crow has become entwined with Christian culture and is now taught as part of a strategy to keep their culture and language alive.